The 1/2% Can Travel In Even More Luxury

By Bruce Brandon

Daher-Socata’s latest version of the TBM, the TBM 900 made its first at Air Venture appearance.  This is an airplane designed to maximize speed and luxury.  Socata has improved on the already impressive TBM 850 with more than 25% of the TBM 850 being new or modified. It has the rock solid Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66D and added an improved five bladed Hartzell propeller that provides 850 shp.

Additionally, there is an improved air inlet and exhaust for the engine, composite winglets, streamlined gear doors, a modified deicing air inlet, and perhaps most importantly, a simplified engine management system that requires only one cockpit lever.

The airplane is an excellent performer both on the ground and in the air.  It can get into almost any airport with its fifty foot obstacle takeoff requirement of 2,380 ft. and landing of only 2,430 ft.

Once airborne, it has a maximum cruise of 330 kts at FL280.  Unlike some aircraft that attempt to compete with the TBM 900, it can carry 891 pounds of people and baggage with full fuel a range of 1440-1730 NM depending on how fast you want to go.

Daher-Socata has seven U.S. distributors and already delivered 26 TBM 900s.  The TBM line of 700-885-900 has 674 airplanes delivered and accumulated over 1,100,000 flight hours. The TBM 900 is an airplane to be reckoned with.

FMI www.tbm.aero  www.daher.com